I went shopping today.

School supplies you know, it's that time of year.

I didn't even bring a list, or try to find a list. I went to Office Max, Staples and Shopko and bought all their sales. You can't beat ten cents a pad of paper (limit 18) and ninety nine cents for crayola markers, water color paints, colored pencils, throw in a tub of erasures for twenty cents and glue for twenty five cents and more more more of the same, I think I made out pretty good.

My big splurge for the kids, not knowing what Jane will need makes it really hard to buy for her. With the sixth graders switch to jr. high, I really am at a loss at what she needs. The floor the sixth graders will occupy wasn't even cleared for them when school ended eight weeks ago. They weren't even sure how they would split the classes, change the workload, ect. So, I found a binder with a ton of pockets. For my disorganized girl, it just might be what she needs to oraganize her. We'll see.

I also bought something for myself. Shopko has cookware on sale at 50% off. I bought a set of Hard Anodized cookware. It's non-stick but without teflon. It's sturdy, really looks like it's made to last. I cannot begin to describe how excited I am. It's almost indecent. ;-)

Now, to train my family to take care of them!

Oh gosh, how could I not mention Greg's fingers?????

Egads, what a nightmare!

Ever since David had gotton hurt, he's been mean, just mean to his twin. On a mission to make his twins life miserable, in whatever manner he could. Well he succeeded Sunday after church. Little **** slammed the door on his brothers hand. And the door latched.

Poor Greg was in so much pain, just so much pain all he could do was scream and kick his legs in frustration while flapping his injured hand. I thought he had broken his middle finger, it was an ugly maroon color, there was plenty of blood. Oh it was gruesome.

Conviently I had codiene on hand and knew the correct dosage for the little boy. It thankfully knocked him out allowing him to just relax. He really needed that.

He lost one nail completely and that finger was/is still a scabbed mess. The other nail is obviously damaged and he'll lose that nail too. We spent four solid days with little boys with bandaged fingers blowing through a rediculous amount of tubular gauze. Finally Thursday, after I got David's stitches off (I do amazing things when children sleep *laugh), I lifted the twins water ban. In celebration they swam the irrigation ditch at the park.

Not my idea of fun but then again I'm not a three year old deprived of water for a solid week.

I let them.

Hopefully we can enjoy the rest of the summer. Even if the cherries are gone, much to the twins dissapointment. :-)

Just a quick update

David got his wounds redressed. I could go into great detail about soaking his thumb and having to "help" the dressing off, but lets leave it at, there was blood when they were done.

The nurses felt so bad, they gave him enough stickers, they had a paperclip to keep them all together.

I'm suppose to keep it dry and bandaged until the stitches come out. I can't keep one boy dry and let the others get wet. I'm going to have really REALLY stinky boys.

On another note, Ean has a birthday party this afternoon. Boy, is he excited! lol

Also, the child is obsessed with pitting cherries. Really.

Dave's no good, bad day

Yesterday.

Yesterday I got to experience that heart stopping adrenalin that we mom's dread. You know, the one that comes a split second after your child wails and you know something is dreadfully wrong.

Heaven knows my children wail a lot. Sometimes between Kate and Ean, my desire to plug my mp3 player into my ears and drown them out is enormous. But the wail I heard yesterday wasn't either one of them. It wasn't Jane nor was it Greg. It was my little Dave.

I know, I know, David and Greg are the same size but there's something about David, the tone of his voice, the way he moves, that just makes calling him "little Dave" seem natural. Blame my mom, she started it. *laugh*

I did say, six kids, didn't I? I had my niece Sarah on loan. We had invited her to the movies to see "Madagascar 2" with popcorn. Sarah's mom had dropped her off, my mom had arrived to come with us. After unlocking the suburban door, I started around to the other side, the twins seats are behind the driver, and middle, so that's where I buckle them. I made it to the very back of the car, so only two or three seconds from when I unlocked the door when the wail happened.

My mom yelled for me, and turned around and ran around the car. My mom was holding Davids wrist tightly, applying pressure. There was blood gushing. I grabbed the child and ran into the house and started the faucet. I couldn't even see where to apply pressure. I figured out quickly it was his thumb, took his hand out of the water, and mom handed me paper towels, we quickly soaked what we had and got new ones.

While trying to hold on the paper towels with a frantically crying boy at my feet, mom and I exchanged keys and I gave her the movie tickets. The movie was paid for, there was no reason for the other kids to not go and mom was a complete sport taking five children to the movies.

I got Ean's booster, safety out the window, I wasn't going to take the time to move a proper car seat. Conveniently there's an urgent care just outside our neighborhood, so I didn't have to go far. They got us right in and the nurse smeared Dave's thumb with numbing stuff.

He just sobbed, for a very long time.

Since it was a crushing injury (car door) the doctor ordered x-rays.

Three were taken and poor David just hated having to put his thumb down but he did really well. Very soon he figured out what was expected and when one of the shots needed to be redone, he held his hand very still with no prompting for the final x-ray.

It was confirmed that his bone was chipped. Once they started cleanup we realized he'd also lost his nail, both of these on top of a pretty ugly laceration. The Novocaine was the worst part, I had to hold him down for that but he was very cooperative once his thumb was numb. The laceration required three stitches. It runs almost the whole length of his thumb. The stitches look funny because the cut is jagged. It's actually not very big, but his thumb is so little, it looks much bigger then it is.

I requested Tylenol with codeine for the guy. He was being so brave but at the same time, the chipped bone, the lost nail along with the stitches, just makes you cringe. It makes me cringe!

Apparently codeine doesn't make David sleepy. He's got to be the only person in the world, but he was wired last night. Kent called me from work to let me know that he'd heard crying and noise from the bedroom. Worried about David's thumb, he opened the door. David was standing on Greg's chest jumping up and down.

We know the Codeine relieved pain, cause he was a stinker to his twin! Poor Greg!! His brother gets hurt and he suffers!

Tomorrow I take him in to change the dressing, we'll see if they say anything about the cherry stains on it. Actually I had to put it back on multiple times today, but it was still dry, so I didn't take him in. Hopefully it's all healing the way it should be.

All together now... POOR DAVID!!!!

Is it the kids or summer that makes life crazy?

Or maybe a good combination of both?

Really it's been never ending. Ean got spanked by the neighbor yesterday. He just let himself in and gave himself a tour of their house. Really, I'm confused, where on the world did he even think that was OK? He really struggles with boundaries, always in his siblings stuff, always in my stuff. In whatever he wants to and I'm not sure how to address it.

He's painted the bathroom sink with nail polish, painted the downstairs couch with nail polish, he's swiped every type of food he could from the kitchen and hidden it in his room. I mean multiple containers of yogurt, pancakes, oh gosh I don't know what all. This type of behavior you'd expect from a foster kid that thought he'd be starved but Ean? He's never been deprived. Sure we don't have treats every day and mama doesn't buy junk, but I bake goodies, we have Popsicles for the summer. It's not like they never have sugar, I personally think they still have way to much.

But it's not just food, he steals whatever catches his eye, whether or not he knows what it actually is. I had one perfume that I liked and occasionally lightly used. One. One. Normally perfume bothers my allergies but this was a very light scent that I could get away with. Haiku Awakenings from Avon. I got it oh, maybe five or six years ago. Yeah, it's gone. My son used it all. My son......

There's dangerous stuff too. He's swiping meds. I had to tell him over and over that medication will make you so sick you'll go to the hospital, it could kill you. I made him cry. But if my words aren't strong, he completely blows me off? How do I deal with that?

The kids had swim lessons last month, a friend told me I could split up a private lesson, I asked one of the teachers, he said, yes you could. I asked again, he said yes you could. I said really? I can take all the kids, pay for a half hour and get them all in? He said sure you can, I'll do it.

SO the kids had one private lesson, the neighbor doesn't know how to swim, I arranged for her to come along and for two teachers. The other teacher was prepared to go for an hour an half with each kid having their own half hour. Said I could go shorter but I'd have to pay for each. child. no. matter. what.

Wait.

That doesn't compute.

It's not like I didn't ask five or six times, check and double check. And if I'm willing to pay for their time, why shouldn't I have a say in how that time is used? It makes them more money in the end because I can't afford to pay for each child. I was more then a bit frustrated, so Kent and I are going to take the kids swimming Saturday, see how much work we can do on our own.

I wish I had access to a private pool. There's a woman that taught the girls, she was awesome. So incredibly good. I'd love for her to teach them but she's not affiliated with the gym anymore. *sigh*

Lets see, what else. Oh the forth! I ended up with an abscessed tooth and a sprained ankle. The kids had a great time. I ended up on the phone with the dentist's office at the parade getting a stronger prescription of antibiotics. That was Saturday, when I went into the dentist on Monday, I found out there was no hope for that tooth, it was pulled.

That's the third tooth I've had pulled and I'm not even forty yet. I'm kissing forty, but I'm not forty yet.

I know in my head my teeth do not reflect what I'm worth as a person but I still feel like less of a person. While getting numbed, I had tears just rolling down my face. It's humbling. It's embarrassing.

To top it all off is the question of money. We can't afford the dental work and I feel so damn guilty for causing more stress on our already stretched to the hilt finances.

It doesn't help that I could have used something heavier then the Tylenol and ibuprofen I was taking the first couple of days but I didn't dare with a kid in the house that I know (somehow) swiped meds. We have locks on everything, and he still manages to get in.

ARG!

Kate is being the laziest butt this summer, not responding to me over and over again.

I don't know, I'm frustrated.